Jeb Bush admits he smoked pot; sparks Internet memes

And the best Republican presidential candidate vine is…still this cut of Jeb Bush talking about his favorite Apple products.

The Florida Governor and brother of former President George W. Bush said in a candidate’s debate on CNN last night that his Mother will be unhappy with him for sharing that piece of information. People have one standard for others and not for them – for themselves. “The people that are going to jail for this are the poor people, often African-Americans, often Hispanics- and yet the rich kids who use drugs, aren’t”.

“Forty years ago, I smoked marijuana, and I admit it”, Mr. Bush said during a discussion of drug policy. He went out of his way to say he had always opposed the Iraq War.

My own research suggests that this myopia is widespread; in interviews with Americans across the country, I found that people are so focused on “loopholes” that they massively underestimate the impact of tax rates.

While few are likely to care that anyone smoked pot when they were 17, the debate over the war on drugs is worth discussing and GOP candidates spent plenty of time on the topic.

Paul: Gov. Christie would go into Colorado and if you’re breaking any federal law on marijuana even though the state allows it would put you in jail…

Bush’s exact response: “I think there needs to be hearing, but the fact is, I think we need to encourage that kind of involvement”.

The exchange came during a broader debate about states rights and marijuana laws. But his refusal to separate medical from recreational marijuana was disingenuous, as Christie duly noted. People seeking national office are far more likely to fall back on the cliches peddled by Carly Fiorina, who invoked her daughter who died from substance abuse and denounced pot legalization via the discredited gateway-drug theory.

Who won the marijuana portion of the debate? But his refusal to separate medical from recreational marijuana was disingenuous, as Christie duly noted.

Tapper asked Paul to identify the “hypocrite” he mentioned sharing a stage with, to which he replied that “if we leave it open, we can find out how many of them smoked pot in high school”. It was sheer grandstanding.